Peace
by DarkestWolfx
Summary: With Morgana dead and the battle over, the land of Albion was finally in peace. But for Merlin he had a few things to do first before he could be at peace. Spoilers for 5x13.


Just a short piece that I have written to try and vent my sadness from the last episode.

* * *

He went to find the horses first (which wasn't hard) before heading back to where he had killed Morgana. Her body was light as he placed her over one of the horses before leading them both towards the castle where Morgana had been living.

Merlin carried her up to the throne room and set her down on the stone chair. He lifted her head and let it rest against the back of the cool stone. The young Warlock moved her hair from her face and carefully shut her eyelids over her now dull blue eyes.

Carefully he stepped back and looked at the once kind and compassionate woman and shook his head slightly knowing that he was partly to blame for what she became.

Partly.

Turning he began to walk off out of the hall and away from the dead witch who had once been his friend. He thought that she could finally be happy now, after all she had always wanted to sit on a throne with Arthur dead: she just didn't plan on being dead herself of course.

* * *

Merlin had locked the door to the throne room and it hadn't taken him long to head away from the castle and towards the hillside. He spent time gathering rocks until it was almost getting to dark to see before heading back up to the top of the hill where there was a small flat plain.

That night he sat in the darkness building the rocks into two separate towers, side by side of each other. When morning came he sat there for a little longer for both Finna and Alator had proven themselves to be very good allies and even better friends.

He left them a few minutes later, making his way down the other side of the hill, Finna and Alator weighing heavily on his thoughts. Although Morgana had burned their bodies he couldn't help, but feel obliged to make them some form of proper grave even if it couldn't be marked with their names.

It was Mordred that he went to next. Morgana had made him a grave of his own and placed his sword in the ground in front of the stack of stones. Merlin kneeled down beside the sword and ran his hand lightly down the side of the blade until he reached the small dip where a chunk of silver was missing.

His hand moved over that small gap several times before he finally stopped and turned his attention to the stack of stones that now marked Mordred's life.

It was as he had said: they went unmarked in death just as they did in life.

He had nothing more to say to him.

* * *

Merlin was more than aware that he was dragging both horses with him, but it didn't feel right to leave one and take the other, not like Arthur had left him stuck here. Failure was one feeling that was eating away at his core as he dragged the creatures behind him.

A moment later he stopped and once the two horses reached his side, they too stopped to await whatever was going to happen next.

Merlin stopped dragging them. He walked beside them instead.

* * *

He decided to head for Camelot and collect an amount of supplies that would see him over for a little while. On his way there he felt pained and pulled down, which to him spoke words that didn't need to be said. So with that he changed course.

* * *

Kilgharrah still lived in the same place as when Merlin had first called him to save his life when Morgana and Morgouse had trapped him in chains and he had been poisoned by a serket. Even though Kilgharrah had save his life that day, he still bared the scar on his lower back to prove it.

The old, dark coloured dragon looked up and smiled when he walked in and sat down on the ledge of rock in front of him. Merlin just smiled back and remained sat there, saying nothing for once. He wondered how much Arthur had missed his 'mindless prattle' at Camlann.

* * *

Hours later - when Kilgharrah was sleeping - Merlin left the cave and called on Aithusa. The White Dragon arrived moments later and Merlin ordered it to follow him inside the cave. Once inside, Aithusa could see the dragon that had kept it company for the first while of the small dragons life.

Merlin sat back down in the same spot as before and fixed his eyes on the sleeping Kilgharrah.

It was a moment later when Aithusa sat down as well.

* * *

When Kilgharrah had first awoken and seen Aithusa, he had scolded the little dragon for aiding Morgana. So much for the White dragon boding well for Arthur and for Albion.

* * *

The three kept each others company for another day and a half before Kilgharrah started talking in riddles again. Merlin listened carefully to every word that the dragon spoke: aware that he would only get to hear it once.

Kilgharrah breathed a huge sigh and began to speak of Balinor, allowing Merlin a short insight towards his Father, which the young Warlock was greatfully appreciative of. That story though hadn't taken Kilgharrah long to tell and he smiled at the end of it, looking between Merlin and Aithusa with comtemptment. He kept that silence for a few moments before speaking the last words that he wanted to say that consisted of many thank you's and honour to have served and known you's.

Merlin had tears in his eyes by the end of it and Aithusa looked mournful, yet Kilgharrah - with a beaming smile - managed to say one last thing to him.

"How small you are, for such a great destiny."

* * *

Merlin had ordered Aithusa to stay in that cave as he set off for Camelot again. The White dragon had listened to him and remained sat there watching the body of the only other dragon that it had known with such ferocity that it posed a danger to anyone who dared to enter the cave.

As he walked towards Camelot he decided that it would be wise to teach Aithusa to speak like Kilgharrah had done. After all, they were all that each other had now.

* * *

Merlin reached Camelot in the middle of the night. He left his horses round the back of the stables and headed into the citadel. The corridors were silent and Merlin was able to quickly move around without being seen. Being Arthur's servant for nine years, he knew the whole castle (as well as all of the hidden tunnels and exits) like the back of his hand.

He felt bad for waking the old man that had grown to be like a Father to him, although he knew that Gaius wouldn't mind too much. When Merlin opened the old wooden door he had been surprised to see Gaius still up and working at this late time of night.

Gaius had turned his head when he heard the door opening and had looked on in shock and happiness when he saw Merlin. The young Warlock walked over to his mentor, who threw his arms around him before indicating to the bench for them to sit down.

Merlin told Gaius about how he had failed to Arthur and was sorry as well as Aithusa and Kilgharrah. Gaius sent them both his best wishes, but Merlin told him that he didn't need to send it to both. The Physician had understood then that Merlin had lost yet another friend.

They cleared out his room, Merlin taking his magic book and the staff that he had taken fro the Sidhe with him as well as the blankets, herbs and candles that Gaius gave him.

Together they packed food and water for him to take as well and when all of that was done, they still had a little bit of the night left, so they once again sat down to talk. This time Gaius told Merlin the tales of what he had missed.

After debating on whether or not to tell Merlin about Gwaine, the old man had done so, thinking it for the best before moving on to tell Merlin the better things that had happened.

Gwen had become Arthur's successor and took the throne of Camelot as it's only heir as well as her promise not to marry anyone else for as long as she shall live.

Merlin had panicked at that comment, but Gaius had informed him that Gwen was carrying Arthur's child and the young man calmed down knowing that Kilgharrah had been right the other day.

Gaius was sad to see Merlin leave again, but he promised to write and ensured his mentor that he would return when Arthur's son was born for a day. He also made Gaius promise to live until that day.

He had loaded the stuff that he had onto the two horses, trying to share it as easily as he could between the pair of them. The sun was edging in to view now and Merlin went to mount his horse before thinking differently of it.

Carefully he headed back into the castle and found Gwaine's body. Despite never looking very strong, Merlin had found renewed strength in himself as of late and as a result was able to carry Gwaine's dead body easily. He left a note for the Knights and placed Gwaine over one of the horses before mounting the other and riding out of Camelot just before everyone started to wake up.

The first thing Leon and Percival did when they found the note, was go to Gwen and Gaius. It was them who told the tale of who Merlin truly was.

* * *

Aithusa had accompanied him when he set Gwaine out on a boat across the lake of Avalon. The White dragon had answered his call and met him there. Merlin and Aithusa sat and watched as the boat sailed further away from them.

After that, Merlin couldn't be bothered to get up and move, so the pair stayed there. Now was as good a time as any to start teaching Aithusa English.

* * *

The next day he travelled to visit Deagal. Merlin sat with him for a while and told him of Arthur's death. He stayed there for quite sometime, sitting in complete silence, thinking over how well he had known the young boy and how well they could have done together.

Deagal had the skills of a good Physician that - with someone like Gaius to help him - could have made him a very respectable Court Physician.

As Merlin mounted his horse and gave the stack of stones one last look, he wondered how Deagal could save Arthur when he couldn't.

* * *

Later that day he arrived in Ealdor. His Mother had been more than pleased to see him and had asked him to stay for dinner with her. After just under three years of not seeing her, Merlin agreed with ease.

Telling her of Arthur's death was hard, not because of who she was, but also because the tale was one that he didn't really want to keep reciting to everyone. However he had given his word to Kilgharrah that he would tell those who had ever known of his destiny, magic or had just been good friends of his.

After they had eaten they talked some more and Hunith managed to convince her son to stay over night as well. Merlin fell asleep after a while of just laying there, thinking.

Hunith watched over him all night.

* * *

Princess Mithian was good at hunting and in recent months, her Father had accompanied her. Since Arthur had helped them to regain their kingdom from Morgana, both she and her Father had decided to visit Camelot as often as they could.

Mithian enjoyed going out hunting with her Father, however today they had decided to go for a ride together since they hadn't spent much time together lately. The Princess was in a jovial mood and she was galloping ahead of her Father who was calling out to her.

"Mithian, slow down!" He was shouting to her, but he was happy and in no way angry with his Daughter. After all, their current race back to Nemeth had been his idea.

"No way." Mithian called back, looking over her shoulder at her Father before turning back to face the way ahead of her. The Princess and her beautiful white mare soon entered a small clearing. Mithian decided to slow down slightly to give her Father a chance to catch her up.

She smiled seeing that victory was almost hers as her Father entered the clearing behind her, she went to kick her mare back into a canter when a massive group of people suddenly jumped out from the circling trees. Mithian was too shocked to move for a moment before she felt something grab her before she was pulled off of her horse and onto her feet on the solid, leafy ground.

She could hear her Father calling her name and she tried to get away from the hands that held onto her, wishing now that they had accepted the Knights offer of them to come with them. Her Father was in a similar situation and it took her a moment to recognise the people as bandits

Arthur had sent message to them a little while back to warn them of bandits who had been circling Camelot. When she thought about it, that was the last she had heard from Arthur or anyone else in Camelot for that matter.

Her wrists were getting sore as she tried to pull them from the bandits grip when suddenly the two men holding her were doing so no more.

She looked desperately over to her Father in time to see the men holding him suffer the same fate. Both of them were watching as the other bandits were all thrown back as well, some of them hitting their heads on the surrounding trees or rocks and others being lucky enough to miss them by centimetres.

Rodor joined his Daughter to stand at her side as they looked around for whoever had saved them. Both of them had looked and both had found nothing.

"Let's head back," Her Father told her as he headed over to his horse, "We can always continue our race another time if you don't want to finish it now." The Princess had heard him, however she remained stood where she was , looking around, in one last chance hope of trying to see their rescuer.

But in the end, Mithian - after looking everywhere else - looked in front of her planning to grab her horse as her Father had said when she saw him.

Merlin stood in front of her holding what she assumed to be his horse in one hand and her mare in the other. The servant walked over to her and handed her the reins. Her Father had headed back over to join her now, leading his horse behind him and watching the King of Camelot's servant for it seemed that he had saved them.

"Was it you?" He asked, "You saved us?"

"Yes, My Lord." Merlin told him, but before he could say anything else, Mithian spoke up.

"Thank you Merlin," She praised, "I always knew you were different."

"I'm sorry?" The Warlock questioned.

"The bandits that you saved us from," She announced, "They just happened to fly backwards by themselves did they? You have magic, Merlin."

Her Father didn't say anything and for a moment, Merlin didn't know what to say either, "Mithian I-"

"Merlin, I owe you my life as does my Father."

"You're welcome, Princess." Merlin replied before leading his horse away.

"Merlin!" Mithian called out, causing the Warlock to stop, "That rockfall when Odin had captured my Father: it wasn't an accident was it."

"No it wasn't, My Lady." Merlin replied.

"Arthur's lucky." Mithian told him, realising that Merlin had saved both her and Arthur and most likely Arthur many times in the past.

"Arthur's dead." Came Merlin's blunt reply as he led his horse away from the clearing.

"Merlin!" Mithian called, but she received no answer as the Warlock left them alone with the two horses and unconscious bandits in the wide clearing.

Later that day, Mithian and her Father were travelling to Camelot.

* * *

"There's someone here, demanding to see you, My Lady." The Servant relayed the message that she had been told.

"Who?"

"A young looking boy. He said that his name was Merlin, servant to King Arthur." The young girl replied, becoming slightly nervous when her Queen suddenly stood up.

"Merlin. Send him up here, now." The serving girl left quickly to do so and Queen Annis walked round to the back of her throne, a held on the top of the wood. She was wondering why Merlin would be here if Arthur wasn't. From her memory - if of course she remembered correctly - Merlin didn't leave Arthur's side, unless there was some reason that forced him to.

The Queen turned when she heard the doors open and saw the serving girl that she had sent to fetch Merlin return with the young man in tow.

"Um, could you fetch him a chair please," The Queen asked, seeing how tired Merlin looked, "Thank you. Could you make sure that we aren't disturbed? I'll call if we need anything."

The serving girl bowed her head to the Queen before exiting the hall. Merlin watched her leave before looking towards the Queen, his head lowered towards the floor. Annis watched him carefully as he stood, but did not sit down on the chair that had been placed next to him.

"Please Merlin," She started, "Have a seat. You looked tired."

"I'm fine, thank you, My Lady." Merlin replied.

"No, please, sit down," The Queen insisted and a second later the servant was sat down on the chair, but he was still looking at the floor, "Merlin. Where's Arthur?"

"I'm sorry?" Merlin questioned, looking up at the Queen: he hadn't really been focussing on what she had been saying after he had sat down.

"Arthur, Merlin. You never leave his side, so where is he?"

"That's why I came here."

"Has he disappeared? Been kidnapped? I can send out a search party if it would help or-"

"No, no it wouldn't help," Merlin snapped before stopping and taking a deep breath before speaking again, "I'm sorry. I have no right to-"

"It's fine," Annis told him. Looking him over once again she could see the differences from when she had last seen him. He was thinner and looked sadder as well. His eyes looked tired and he looked ill, "Merlin are you well enough to be sat there? We can continue this in the morning if you would prefer to have some rest first."

"No, I'm fine. You need to know."

"Need to know what, Merlin?" Queen Annis asked.

"Arthur's dead."

The look of shock on Queen Annis's face doubled when Merlin fell off of the chair, unconscious.

* * *

It had taken Merlin quite a few days to convince Annis to let him leave. He had headed towards another cave and headed inside to see the ancient Disir sat together.

He told them about what Kilgharrah had said to him and spent some time talking to them. Eventually he asked them the question that Kilgharrah had told him that the three women could answer. But even before they had answered Merlin already knew what the answer was.

Emrys meant immortal.

* * *

Merlin, Aithusa and the two horses lived in Kilgharrah's cave after the battle at Camlann. The young Warlock taught Aithusa something knew each day and told the still young dragon stories about Arthur and his great kingdom of Camelot.

One day, Merlin came back with the raven that Morgana had used to send messages. He wrote to Gaius and used the raven to send his letters to the old Physician at Camelot.

The raven always brought one back.

* * *

Eight months and a week since the battle of Camlann saw Merlin return to Camelot in the dead of night. He snuck in and met Gaius who walked down the corridors with him to Arthur's old chambers.

Gwen was sleeping when they entered the room and Merlin was extra careful to make sure that he quietly shut the door behind him. The Warlock made his way over to Gwen's side and placed a hand on her warm forehead. With a few words he rose, nodded towards Gaius and left the room.

He saved the Queen's life that night.

* * *

It was almost a year later when he saved Percival and Leon from the remaining saxons. The too looked shocked to see him - or it could have been Aithusa that they were shocked to see - but Merlin just stared back at them before saying goodbye and leaving the pair to head back to Camelot.

That was the last he saw of Leon and Percival.

* * *

After a while, he and Aithusa moved to live in the crystal cave. Merlin used the crystals to watch Camelot from afar and see any danger that was coming to it and stop it before it could even reach the Kingdom.

He watched over the years as Arthur's son grew up and became all the more like the Father that he had never known. Although Merlin made sure to note that Arthur's ignorance and attitude (that he had seen when the pair first met) were obviously not genetically inherited.

At least that was a relief.

It took only another few months before Gaius arrived at the entrance to the Crystal Cave with his Mother in tow, looking very ill.

Hunith died three days later.

* * *

Gaius followed about a month after his Mother. After Hunith's death the old Physician decided to stay with his ward. Gaius and Aithusa had come to be good friends and Merlin was glad that after everything Gaius had done for him, that the old man had found peace in his last few days.

Merlin never left the cave afterwards until seventeen years later and Aithusa found a use for it's massive wings as a blanket.

* * *

The Knights couldn't go anywhere. The Saxons had blocked their every exit and could easily outnumber them at least two to one, but possibly more. Suddenly the Saxons flew back and the land around them erupted in flames.

Percival rose to his feet and watched as the flames burnt, sparks of fire crackling onto other parts of the battleground.

He heard flapping before something landed behind him. Percival didn't need to turn around to tell what it was, but he did. Merlin appeared a moment later and destroyed the flames for the pair of them to have a clearer view.

Most of the Saxons died that day.

Any of the Saxons that did survive were never heard from and there were no more wars or battles started against them. But the Saxons weren't the only thing to die that day.

Merlin, Percival and Aithusa had spent ages searching for Sir Leon only to become saddened when they eventually found the Knight.

Percival and Merlin sorted out a funeral for him and the pair watched the boat sail along the Lake.

* * *

The crystals spoke to Merlin all of the time and he had already used them to watch his whole life over again. It had been three years since Leon's death when the still young Warlock suddenly jolted awake and left the cave. Aithusa found out later what had happened.

* * *

The twenty one year old, crowned Prince of Camelot looked out upon the lake of Avalon and the small burning, wooden boat. His Mother had demanded in her last few days to be taken there, knowing that it was where Merlin had been taking Arthur after the battle at Camlann.

He had demanded to be left alone by the Knights and the new Physician as well as all of those others who had accompanied him, to grieve alone for a while. After all he now had to comprehend becoming King and getting married to someone that he probably didn't even like. The sound of crunching twigs made him sigh.

"I thought I asked to be left alone," He shouted back, without even looking to see who had come back to find him. The Prince did, however turn around when no one replied, "Who are you?" He asked as he looked upon a young man who perfectly matched his Mother's description of his Father's servant - Merlin.

"Merlin." The Warlock replied as he walked over and sat beside the Prince, holding his hand out.

"Gwdyre," The young Prince answered, taking the man's hand and shaking it before letting go and looking out across the lake, "My Mother said you knew my Father."

"Yes."

"Why did you never return to Camelot after he died?" Gwdyre asked.

"It just didn't feel right," Merlin replied also looking out across the lake, "It didn't feel at peace yet. Or maybe I didn't feel at peace there. I guess... I guess that I had to find my own peace."

"Do you think you've found it now?" Gwdyre asked curiously as he looked at the thin, black haired Warlock.

"I think so." Merlin replied before standing up. Gwdyre could see the tears in his eyes as he walked away.

"Wait!" He called out. Merlin stopped walking and turned to face him, "Answer me something."

"Anything." Merlin answered.

"Was my Father a good man? A good King?"

Merlin nodded, fresh tears coming to his eyes as he spoke, "They'll never be another like him." The Warlock turned and began to walk back. The Prince watched as the Warlock walked away and as Sir Percival ran over to him to ask if that was Merlin that he had just seen.

Gwdyre turned back to face the lake before sighing and clenching his hand around his Mother wedding ring, that still hung off of the chain that she had put it on.

He couldn't be as great as his Father, but he could try.

As Merlin walked away he smiled slightly. It seemed that Albion was finally completely peaceful.

* * *

Okay, I finally managed to finish writing something after that final episode. I plan to update Hunted in Every Direction soon as well as post a few new stories. Please vote on my poll and thanks for reading - I hope you liked it.


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